


The Wildflowers That Bloom

by nickel710



Series: second chances [1]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Arranged Marriage, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Happy Ending, Izumi's mother, M/M, Past Character Death, Pregnancy, it's just soft and kinda sad and also kinda hopeful, set about 15 years after the end of ATLA series, some details drawn from Korra and/or the comics, the gaang is all here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-03
Updated: 2020-08-03
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:55:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25683910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nickel710/pseuds/nickel710
Summary: [ When Zuko’s wife dies at the tender age of thirty, he’s deeply ashamed to admit to himself that among the feelings of grief, shock, terror, and uncertainty, he also feels some measure of relief. He tries desperately to unfeel it. Izumi is motherless, the Fire Nation has lost an incredible leader, and he now has to forge into this uncertain future alone. There is nothing to be relieved about....“I don’t want her to be dead,” Zuko says abruptly to his friend, watching Izumi play with her cousins.“Of course you don’t,” Aang says immediately, frowning at his friend. “Why do you say that?”“I don’t want her to be dead, but I… I can’t help but feel like… I’m glad we’re not married anymore.” ]orFourteen years after the defeat of Ozai, Zuko starts over and gets a second chance he didn't know he was looking for.
Relationships: Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)
Series: second chances [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1906597
Comments: 47
Kudos: 649





	The Wildflowers That Bloom

**Author's Note:**

> Welp. I didn't care about this ship very much and then something changed and now here I am. On the ship. Writing the ship. Flying the ship's flag.
> 
> I wrote this in like... two days? I hope you enjoy it.

When Zuko’s wife dies at the tender age of thirty, he’s deeply ashamed to admit to himself that among the feelings of grief, shock, terror, and uncertainty, he also feels some measure of relief. He tries desperately to unfeel it. Izumi is motherless, the Fire Nation has lost an incredible leader, and he now has to forge into this uncertain future alone. There is nothing to be relieved about. 

Yet the feeling lingers.

Aang, Katara, and their brood are the first to arrive as news of Lady Raya’s death spreads. They fly in on Appa, and Zuko can’t help but feel a little clench of fatherly concern at the idea of the young children on Appa’s saddle. He knows Aang and Katara are fine parents and can logically deduce that the children are secure and safe, between Appa’s steadiness and their parents’ mastery of bending. Yet he can’t help but think, he wouldn’t let Izumi ride Appa all that distance.

After greetings are made, Katara takes the troop of children into Lady Ursa’s Garden to give Aang and Zuko some space. The men wander their way onto Zuko’s private balcony that overlooks his mother’s garden, where they watch Katara waterbend animal shapes at the pond for the children’s entertainment. When little Kya tries to imitate this, she ends up dumping water onto Bumi and Izumi both, and shrieking laughter entails as the children react. Katara has the water out of their clothes soon enough, but Aang and Zuko watch with amusement as this sets off a new game of Kya throwing water at the other children who run to dodge.

“I don’t want her to be dead,” Zuko says abruptly to his friend, watching Izumi play with her cousins.

“Of course you don’t,” Aang says immediately, frowning at his friend. “Why do you say that?”

Zuko shakes his head, glancing at his friend. He can’t quite believe how Aang has grown into this man beside him, still. Fourteen years older than he was when he defeated Ozai, and now he’s married and the father of three, and yet to Zuko, Aang remained perpetually the boy with whom he had first unlocked the true source of firebending. Wise even then, but not this chiseled, tall man beside him.

“I just….” Zuko trails off and returns his gaze to the gardens, where Katara is hoisting a crying Tenzin into her arms and sends the other children out to hide while she counts loudly, giving them a limit before she’ll come to find them. “I don’t want her to be dead, but I… I can’t help but feel like… I’m glad we’re not married anymore.”

Aang watches Zuko for a moment longer, then leans against the balcony again and smiles as Katara gets Tenzin to laugh before she starts looking for the older children hiding amid the greenery. “Grief is a strange thing, Zuko,” he says. “As is marriage. You and Raya were good together the way rain is good in the spring. Necessary, sometimes even pleasant. Normal and healthy. But… you weren’t good together the way Katara and I are.” He looks at Zuko again, finds his eyes. Aang looks sad. “I know Raya meant a lot to you, as Izumi’s mother, as a co-ruler of the Fire Nation… but you were never in love with her.”

Zuko shifts uncomfortably, standing and stretching out his arms to get the blood flowing back into his now-asleep hands. “It feels wrong to admit it,” he tells Aang quietly, turning his back on the garden.

Aang mirrors his position and cocks his head to the side. “Wrong how?”

“Like I’m dishonoring her memory,” Zuko says, surprising himself as his throat chokes up and he has to swallow past a lump to continue. His voice wavers. “She deserved better.”

“Maybe she did,” Aang says with a shrug. “But Raya was a smart woman. An ambitious woman. I think she got what she wanted out of life, in many ways. Although it’s safe to assume she would not have chosen to leave this life so soon, had the choice been hers to make.”

Zuko nods. He knows Aang is right. He and Raya had talked openly and frankly before their marriage about exactly this. Neither of them thought it was a love marriage, though thankfully both of them felt some measure of love for the other. Not deep romantic love, not the kind in the stories or that, maybe, Aang and Katara felt for each other. But mutual respect. They had made each other better. And they had made Izumi.

“I think I’m just not cut out for the kind of love you’re talking about,” Zuko says sadly. “Thirty-one years old and I barely even believe it exists.”

Aang raises an eyebrow. “What about Mai?”

“I felt the same way when Mai and I broke up,” Zuko tells him with a shrug. “I mean, rejection sucks, and at the time I still had so much anger that always was bubbling up, you know? But I was also just kind of glad it was over. Glad I didn’t have to try anymore.”

Aang puts a hand on Zuko’s shoulder. “It’s okay, buddy. You don’t have to want romance, or a relationship. And you certainly don’t have to decide what it all means right now, with Raya’s loss so fresh. Give it time.”

* * *

The night after Raya’s funeral, Zuko sits with his friends in his chambers and they take turns pouring drinks and reminiscing. Everyone’s there—Katara and Aang, of course; Toph, seven months pregnant with her second; Suki and her wife Mel; Sokka, who arrived by himself and is now sitting with Toph and humoring her cravings. Even Ty Lee and Mai stick around and hang out for a while, though by now they’ve retreated and left the former Team Avatar to themselves.

Sokka had taken over as the leader of the Southern Water Tribe a few years ago, when Hakoda had finally retired. Zuko saw him frequently enough; besides official leadership business bringing them together, the whole group had also made a point to get together every year in each of their respective homes for each culture’s most important holidays. The winter solstice for the Water Tribe was spent in the South Pole, where the group stayed with Sokka or Katara and celebrated the spiritual rebirth of the world and paid tribute to the moon spirit. The summer solstice was spent in Caldera City, the group converging on Zuko’s palace for the New Year Festival. Not long after that, they would make their way to the Earth Kingdom to spend Harvest with Toph and Suki. 

In the spring they would accompany Aang on his annual pilgrimage to one of the Air Temples where they spent the time solemnly trimming back another year’s worth of overgrowth, tending to the ancient artifacts, and otherwise caring for the traditions of his people. Some of the Air Temples had inhabitants now, of course, and Katara and Aang had begun rebuilding a family home where Aang had grown up. So the work became less and less arduous each year everywhere except the Western Air Temple, which remained largely abandoned. 

“I remember the first time I met Raya,” Sokka says, bringing Zuko back to the present. “I thought she was awful.”

“Really?” Suki demands, laughing. “I liked her right away.”

“Well, of course she grew on me!” Sokka says defensively. “I like her… liked her a lot, in the end.” A somber mood settles in the wake of this verb tense correction. The group stares into their cups, takes more drinks. (Toph asks quietly for a refill of lemonade.) “But anyway,” Sokka continues, clearing his throat and plastering on a brave smile, “she could tell I didn’t like her much. After Zuko left, she marched right over to me and demanded to know what my problem was.”

Everyone smiles. Zuko smiles. That does sound like Raya. She was direct, fearless. She could be diplomatic when she wanted, patient to an upsetting degree when she knew it would serve her purposes. But she was never one to indirectly or passively influence affairs when a direct hand and bold stroke would do the deed faster.

“She said, if I had a problem with her, I should just say it. That Zuko trusted my judgment too much for me to hide my real opinion of her.”

Zuko looks up, a little surprised at this. He and Raya had only known each other for maybe four months by the time she had met Sokka. Had she really known, even then, how much he valued Sokka’s insight? 

Sokka is looking at Zuko, and they hold eye contact for a minute before Sokka drops his gaze back to the cup of plum wine he’s holding. 

“Well?” Toph demands, poking Sokka with a toe. “What did you tell her?”

“Nothing, really,” Sokka says, quieter than before. “Just that I worried she was a gold digger.”

Everyone laughs, except Toph and Zuko. Toph frowns at him but says nothing, just lands her foot from where she’d been using it to nudge him in his lap. He rubs it absently, and Zuko remembers doing the same for Raya when she had been pregnant with Izumi.

Zuko doesn’t laugh because he knows the truth, that Raya wasn’t in it for the money. She had _ideas_. She had _dreams_. He was not her financier, but he was a stepping stone for her on her way to her real goals. If she hadn’t also been such a good person, her ambition might have been her own downfall. He’d seen it early in their arranged courtship, been wary from the beginning that she was just making a grab for power. But with time he’d come to trust that her commitment to her values was stronger than her desire to control the future of the Fire Nation.

The combination of a strong moral backbone and a powerful ambition had made her a good queen.

He feels tears on his cheeks and even so, it takes him a moment to register that he's crying. She was his compass these past twelve years. He had trusted her completely, relied on her. Like rain in the springtime.

“What am I going to do?” he whispers as his friends avoid eye contact. Katara gets up and resettles next to him, pulling him into a hug so he can cry into her shoulder. Her hand strokes down his hair and she tells him soothing things about how he’s strong, how it’s okay to be sad and scared, how he will survive by putting one foot in front of the other. How his friends will be there to back him every step of the way.

* * *

And they are.

Katara makes a schedule. They all stay for about a month after the funeral, helping Zuko deal with Raya’s possessions and projects. They find new homes for many of her things, and Katara helps him find garment storage boxes when Zuko sets aside some of her favorite ceremonial robes and jewelry for Izumi, when she’s older. They look through her paperwork and work-related journals, have meetings with cloyingly sympathetic diplomats and ambassadors to redirect lines of communication from Raya’s projects. Zuko takes on too much. 

Aang starts to step in and take things onto his own plate, claiming that as Avatar it’s his right to do so. Zuko doesn’t argue, and pretends not to notice when Aang and Katara go back through the last four days’ worth of meeting notes and delegate oversight to trusted advisers instead of Zuko.

Toph is the first to leave. As her pregnancy moves into its eighth month, they all know it’s best for her to be home and settled. Not long after she leaves, Aang is called away on Avatar duty. Katara and the children stay, but Suki and Mel take Aang’s offer to ride along on Appa and get dropped off on Kyoshi Island as he makes his way toward Ba Sing Se.

Sokka stays another week or two after Aang leaves, spending the time with his sister, niece, and nephews, claiming the Southern Water Tribe could get by just fine without him. But soon enough he gets a letter from Hakoda, which he reads with Izumi on his shoulders as he and Zuko walk back from picking her up at her nanny’s chambers after spending four hours deep in tax negotiations with the Republic City Commission.

“Uncle Sokka, watch this!” Izumi screeches, and she kicks her foot out and flames shoot out of her slipper. Sokka snatches the letter out of the way in surprise as Zuko quickly catches the flames and extinguishes them.

“Izumi,” he says sternly, “that’s dangerous, you know.”

“Sorry, Daddy,” she says, resting her chin on Sokka’s head and drooping a bit. “I just wanted to show you what I learned.”

Sokka smiles at Zuko and tugs on Izumi’s foot. “We want to see what you’ve learned, too, kiddo, just… somewhere safe,” he suggests. He tilts his head up and Izumi cranes forward to see his face. “Okay?” he asks, grinning at her.

“Okay!” she agrees, clinging to his chin in a hug. He winces a bit as his head is forced to be craned up and back a bit. Zuko grabs his elbow to guide him away from where he’s veering into the wall, then gently pulls Izumi’s hands off of Sokka’s face.

Once they’re back at the suite where Zuko and Izumi live, Sokka drops the child to the ground and watches her scamper off to find Katara and her children, then turns to Zuko, face regretful.

“Water Tribe business?” Zuko guesses, gesturing at the letter.

Sokka hands the missive over and Zuko scans it. “Rebuilding the Southern Water Tribe is the most important thing I can do with my life,” Sokka says, and it sounds rote to Zuko’s ears, “but sometimes I envy Aang, traveling and free and solving real problems. Not…” he takes the letter back as Zuko offers it, then shakes it a bit, “...hunting territory disputes,” he finishes, scoffing a little.

“I get it,” Zuko says, and he does.

Sokka just stands there for a minute, looking blankly at the letter, then up at Zuko. “Are you… because I can….”

“No— you need to— no. Just go. I know what it’s like to run a nation,” Zuko says, smiling reassuringly. “And you’ve been doing it on your own for a long time. At least I had help these last twelve years.”

Sokka’s face clouds. “Yeah,” he says, and Zuko is surprised to realize he can’t read this expression on his face. A long pause follows, then Sokka gathers himself and says, “Katara is putting together a schedule.” He smiles an exasperated-but-fond smile in the direction of his sister, whom they can hear in the next room singing a song to the children about Avatar Roku. “So that you won’t be alone. She’s taking the first month, of course. I’ll be back, okay? I’ll see you soon.”

“Okay,” Zuko says. He waits while Sokka goes to tell Katara, just standing in the foyer to his own apartments like a stranger, thinking about how up until now it hadn’t really felt that much emptier without Raya.

Sokka leaves in the morning. Zuko, Katara, and the children see him off, waving at his ship until they can’t see it on the horizon anymore.

* * *

Katara stays for three months. Aang is there about half the time, flying in and out on Appa. He brings news when Toph gives birth, another girl, healthy and strong. Mother, daughter, and older sister are all doing well, he reports. He takes Katara and the kids back to the Southern Air Temple after the three months are up, then returns and stays with Zuko himself for another month or so, leaving for a few days here and there when duty calls or to see his family.

Then things really pick up with the Republic City Commission, which had been Raya’s project, and Aang’s, and Zuko understands when Aang needs to leave more permanently to oversee negotiations and building plans. Raya had once spearheaded the Fire Nation delegation on the Commission, but now it was Lady Huana, one of Raya’s friends, entrusted with the important mission. Zuko likes Huana just fine, and knows she will come and report to him directly when needed, so he tries to relax.

He spends more time with Izumi, who misses her mother more than ever now that she doesn’t have Katara and her cousins as distractions. He tries to reassure her but sometimes that seems to do the opposite, and he feels so lost. How had his father helped him and Azula through the loss of their mother? He laughs at himself for even thinking the question.

Suki shows up three days after Aang leaves. She and Zuko were never as close as the others on Team Avatar, but they’ve always gotten along just fine. She helps in a different way than Aang and Katara. She’s not a politician, not involved in delegations and commissions. She doesn’t attend meetings with him, or go over reports so he doesn’t have to.

She does get him to leave the palace and practice some firebending with Izumi in the fresh air. She clears out all of the dying and dusty baskets of mourning flowers and cloths, replacing everything around his suite with fresh, bright colors. She and Izumi instead build a small shrine to Raya in the corner, topping it with her picture. Below the picture is a three-tiered structure on which rests some of the things most precious to Raya: a jade fire crown, which she had always preferred to the traditional gold; a carefully rolled and sealed treaty of the Republic City Commission’s founding; and a ceramic tile into which was pressed three thumb prints. Zuko’s, Raya’s, and Izumi’s. At the bottom of the shrine, an incense holder.

When Zuko returns that evening to the apartment, Izumi leads him by the hand to the new shrine, and they sit together, Zuko still in his heavy work robes, Izumi folded in his arms, and they talk about Raya.

Sokka arrives before Suki leaves the next month and the three of them enjoy a day of swimming and relaxing on the lake, Izumi safe with her tutors at the palace. Zuko holds on to a piece of wood fitted with some padded cloth for floating and kicks out to the middle of the lake, then watches idly as Suki and Sokka banter and play in the water closer to shore. Suki is beautiful, as always, but Zuko’s eyes are drawn to Sokka, who is like an otter in the water, all lithe muscle and precise motions.

Zuko is glad that these two broke up, he thinks. Even though it was bad at the time, it had turned out better for both of them. Suki and Mel were so happy now, and Sokka… well, maybe it hadn’t turned out better for him. Zuko couldn’t really say. But nevertheless, he likes Sokka and Suki as friends more than as lovers.

Sokka sees him watching and swims out to him, disappearing for a bit under the surface of the lake before resurfacing behind Zuko with a big dolphin kick to splash the Fire Lord across his face.

“Hey!” Zuko yelps, the water cold against his sun baked skin that had been out of the lake for a while on the floatie.

“You just looked so glum, floating out here by yourself,” Sokka replies with a little laugh, then kicks over to Zuko and shoves him a bit. “Lemme have a corner of that.”

Zuko obliges and scoots to the end of the wooden floatie, letting Sokka take the other side. It’s too small for both of them, so they adjust and readjust a few times until they’re pressed shoulder to shoulder so they can both hold on. Zuko thinks, the last time he felt contact like this, skin to skin, all down the side of his body, Raya had still been alive.

His head droops a bit and there’s really nowhere for it to go but straight down or onto Sokka’s shoulder. Shoulder it is. Sokka doesn’t say anything so Zuko just stays like that for a bit. On the shore, Suki has laid herself out on a towel to soak in the sun. 

“How are you doing?” Sokka asks after a few minutes of just floating like this.

“Fine,” Zuko says without thinking. Sokka snorts. Zuko smiles. “Actually… not too bad. It’s really been nice seeing more of everyone. I haven’t spent that much one-on-one time with Katara since…” he pauses to consider, “...ever.”

Sokka snorts. “Don’t rub it in, jeez.”

Zuko picks his head up and idly flicks water in his friend’s face. “But besides that, Izumi is… adjusting. She has better and worse days, you know? I’m doing my best to keep everything going here and be a good dad. What about you? Are you sure you can spare being away from the South Pole for a month?”

“No problem,” Sokka says confidently, leaning back with his arms hooked lazily over the floatie now so that he floats with his head in the water, toes bobbing up every now and then. “Dad has been helping me organize things differently. We’re looking to pass the chief position to a new family, actually.”

“What?” Zuko asks, surprised. “But you—”

Sokka waves a hand casually. “I gave it everything, man, but my heart just isn’t in it. I can’t keep pretending it’s what I want when I’m just making myself and everyone else unhappy.”

Zuko knows that Sokka is talking about his own situation but can’t help feeling like his words are meant for Zuko, too. “What makes you happy?” Zuko asks, voice very quiet.

Sokka lets go of the board and ducks under the water, submerging himself for a long moment before resurfacing a few feet away and wiping water from his eyes. “C’mon, Mister Fire Lord, sir,” he says, voice cheerful. “Let’s get out of the sun before you turn into a lobster-urchin.”

* * *

The first time everyone gets together again following Raya’s funeral is the winter solstice, having skipped Harvest in the Earth Kingdom both to avoid descending on Toph with a newborn and to ease up expectations on Zuko for traveling so soon after Raya’s death.

Zuko secretly finds the winter solstice to be a horrible holiday, especially when spent at the South Pole where the sun doesn’t come out _at all_. But the moon is beautiful as always, and the festival is more fun than he gives it credit for every single year. Raya had often accompanied him on visits for the holiday, and Zuko surprises himself by missing her not as Izumi’s mother or as his right hand person, but for her companionship.

It’s delightful, of course. Katara dances with several other women from the Water Tribe, including some visitors from the North Pole. The unification of the two Water Tribes has been underway for several years now, with the North doing everything they can to help the South rebuild. Katara’s waterbending and healing school, open only some of the year since she splits her time between the South Pole and the different Air Temples, is a big draw for bringing young benders from the North to the South. While visiting, they contribute to the rebuilding efforts when Katara is away. Some even settle down and stay.

After the dance, Toph excuses herself to get some much needed rest. Izumi looks for Zuko’s permission before darting off to chatter with Kya. Suki and Mel stroll arm in arm through the markets, picking out snacks and trinkets to buy as souvenirs. Katara and Aang send their kids and Izumi to join the other children playing in the streets, then cozy up by a fire and sit huddled under a blanket together, whispering and smiling. 

The sight makes Zuko ache. He remembers Aang’s words from before: _You and Raya were good together… but you weren’t good together the way Katara and I are._

“Gross,” Sokka’s voice says near Zuko’s ear. Zuko jumps, turns to find his friend grinning at him nearby. He cuts his eyes to Katara and Aang, then raises an eyebrow at Zuko. “Hadn’t pegged you for a voyeur but when they won’t GET A ROOM—” he directs this last loudly in the direction of his sister and brother-in-law. Katara doesn’t even look, just melts some snow and flicks icy cold water into her brother’s face.

Well, it would have been her brother’s face, but Sokka had years of finely tuned anti-Katara instincts, and grabs Zuko’s shoulders and drags him over to use as a human shield. The icy water splats onto the Fire Lord’s face, and he yelps at the shock of it. 

Everything around them stops as people take this in. The people of the South Pole are mostly used to having Zuko among them during the Spirit Festival now, but he’s still the leader of a nation they’d been at war with for a century until about fifteen years ago. When things went smoothly, everyone enjoyed themselves and nobody really paid him much mind. But when your Tribe’s most powerful waterbender smacked the Fire Lord in the face with a half-melted snowball, breaths are held.

Aang’s laughter cuts into the air and Katara shouts, “Oops! Sorry Zuko! I was aiming for Sokka.”

“Yeah, I know,” Zuko calls back, and hastily steams the water off his body and out of his clothes. 

Izumi comes skidding to a halt in the snow in front of him. “Are you okay, Daddy?” she demands, looking disproportionately upset for just a snowball.

“I’m fine, sweetheart. Just a poorly aimed snowball.”

“Hey!” Katara yells from her blanket as Aang cackles louder. “It was _aimed_ just _fine_! If anyone is to blame here, it’s Sokka.”

“Me?” Sokka splutters. “How is it my fault? I was just acting on instinct. Self preservation!”

“You could have ducked,” Zuko points out wryly, tugging Izumi close and running a hand through her hair. 

Sokka opens his mouth, closes it. He nods after a moment. “My fault!” he calls back to Katara. “Sorry everyone!”

There’s a relieved chortle among the people who have stopped to watch this exchange (and a muffled shriek from Katara, _“Is Sokka under duress? Did he just agree with me?”_ ), Izumi gives Zuko’s knees one last squeeze before taking off to find the other children again. 

Sokka grins at Zuko. “Sorry, pal,” he says. “You know how it is. Sisters.”

Zuko thinks about Azula, winces. “Yeah,” he says, having no idea what he’s confirming. But his mind is already elsewhere as his gaze returns to the idyllic village all lit up for the festival.

He thinks back to a few weeks ago when he and Sokka floated in the lake together, and Sokka let him rest his head on his shoulder, and he thinks of Katara and Aang cuddled up under their blanket together, and he thinks, _I get it._

* * *

By the next summer, Sokka has formally given up the position of Chief to a woman named Kuna, who had been barely eighteen when the men had left the South Pole with Hakoda. The new process to decide on the next Chief is called an “election” and Zuko is astounded by its simple audacity. Let… the people… decide? 

It could never work in the Fire Nation, of course, but Republic City….

Despite it having been almost a year since Raya’s death, Zuko’s friends haven’t given up on always having someone on Zuko duty. Toph even manages to come by for a few weeks with her baby, claiming that she was desperate to get out of the house. Traveling as a new mother must be exhausting, but Toph is, well, Toph.

Sokka, freed from Chief duties, spends more and more of his time with Zuko now. More accurately, he spends more and more time in Caldera City harassing Zuko’s engineers. Fire Nation engineers, he tells Zuko regularly, are too dependent on firebending as a source of steam. 

“Why waste benders’ energy producing steam in machines when _machines_ can produce their own steam?”

“Not every firebender is a prodigy,” Zuko points out, watching Izumi closely as she works through her basic forms. “Higher, Izumi!” he calls when he notices her knee block not reaching her chest. She dutifully repeats the motion with more dedication. Zuko nods, then continues talking to Sokka. “Some are better suited to heating coals than calling lightning.”

“Lightning,” Sokka says excitedly, and Zuko can’t help but smile. Of course he takes away entirely the wrong point from Zuko’s comment. “Now _there’s_ a treasure trove of energy potential!”

After a few months of Sokka’s semi-retirement, Zuko offers to just hire him as an engineer. 

“No,” Sokka says immediately, sitting up with alarm from where he’s laying on his back and tossing an apple up and down. “No, you can’t. I mean… thank you, for offering. I get what you’re doing. But I’m just… I’m kinda just taking a vacation, of sorts, from all the…” he waves his hand vaguely, “stuff.”

“Oh,” Zuko says, confused. “What do you intend to do next?”

“I think Republic City is my future,” Sokka tells him, and Zuko notices that Sokka is watching him closely as he says this. Looking for what? Zuko can’t tell. “It’s so alive with potential! I think we’re building something amazing out there, and I want to be a part of it.”

Zuko smiles. “Raya used to say something like that, too.”

Sokka nods seriously. “She always was the smart one,” he says, watching Izumi perform a flawless jumping back kick.

After a minute, Zuko frowns at him. “Hey!”

* * *

Sokka becomes the first elected official to represent the Southern Water Tribe on the Republic City Council. He’s the only non-bender among their ranks, which worries Aang as he considers what the future of Republic City will look like. 

“Will non-benders be fairly represented in a democractic society?” he ponders out loud to Zuko as they walk from the Council Chambers to the Fire Nation Embassy, where Zuko is staying during his visit to Republic City. 

“Why does it matter?” Zuko asks, unconcerned. “Benders can represent non-benders and vice versa. Whether or not someone can bend has nothing to do with how well they will represent their nation’s needs on the Council.”

Aang frowns at him. “I don’t know,” he says. “For one hundred years, the world was divided between your nation and everyone else because of Sozin’s belief that he knew what was best for the whole world. Now that wound is healing, but….” He sighs, rubs at his temples. “I can’t help but think we’re just creating new divisions, new problems.”

Zuko rests a hand on his friend’s shoulder and smiles. “Aang, I can’t believe I, of all people, am about to say this to you, of all people, but… you’re worrying too much. Talk to Sokka more. He’ll brighten your perspective on all this.”

To Zuko’s surprise, Aang looks immediately less worried, though he finds it concerning that his friend’s face now shows that familiar glint of secretive glee he gets when he thinks he knows something Zuko doesn’t. Usually, this is accurate. 

“What?” Zuko asks, looking around with concern. Then he wipes at his face with his sleeve. “Do I have something on my face?”

“No, dummy,” Aang says, voice light.

“Then what’s that look for?” he demands, crossing his arms and scowling. They’ve arrived at the Embassy and people take one look at the Fire Lord’s face and scatter. He wishes they wouldn’t, but can’t blame them. One hundred years of fearing a Fire Lord’s wrath doesn’t erase itself from the entire world’s collective trauma in less than two decades.

Aang has no such fear. He pulls a mock-angry face. “I’m Fire Lord Zuko,” he mimics in a terrible approximation of Zuko’s voice, but taken to a whiney extreme. He drops to a deep stance and does two quick punches to the left, and careful, small flames shoot from his fists. He switches directions and punches to the right, repeating the display. “I eat lava rocks for breakfast and shit still-smoldering coals!” He splays his fingers above his head and shoots flame from all five, holding the pose for a moment.

Zuko arches an eyebrow and waits for a moment before clapping slowly. “Very dignified, Avatar Aang,” he compliments. “Truly, the pinnacle of respectability.”

Aang stands up, grinning, and falls in step with Zuko, but he’s not done. He wipes the grin from his face and scowls exaggeratedly again, crossing his arms. “I’m not Avatar Aang,” he protests. “I’m Fire Lord Zuko.”

Zuko rolls his eyes but plays along, giving Aang a mocking bow. “How silly of me, my lord,” he says. “To what do I owe the pleasure of such distinguished company?”

“Oh, don’t mind me,” Aang says in his grandiose pseudo-Zuko voice. “I’m just here to preach the wonders of my best friend Sokka! Have you heard him talk about electricity? Poetry, every sentence! He’ll electrify your senses, eh? Eh?” He elbows Zuko playfully. “And worry not about the future of Republic City, for Councilman Sokka is on the case! No problem too big for his mighty brawn and brain!”

“Sokka isn’t my best friend,” Zuko says, surprised at Aang’s misread. “You are.”

Aang blinks at him, straightening up a little. “Well,” he says, more seriously, “thank you. You’re my best friend, too. But Sokka can also be your best friend, I don’t mind sharing.”

Zuko smiles, tilting his head. “It’s not the same. He’s important to me, but it’s different.”

Aang seems excited by this. “That’s great! I’m glad the two of you are finally doing something about all those years of tension.”

“Tension?” Zuko repeats, blank.

Aang stops in his tracks. “Zuko,” he says.

“Aang,” Zuko says.

“If he isn’t your best friend,” Aang begins.

“He’s not,” Zuko confirms.

“But he’s important to you,” Aang continues, and his voice takes on this leading, incredulous tone that grates at Zuko.

“Yes?” Zuko says shortly.

“Then what is he?”

“He’s— he’s Sokka!” Zuko exclaims, waving his hands a bit in exasperation. “What is Toph to you?”

“A friend!” Aang replies. “That’s easy. She’s a dear, wonderful friend, and a trusted adviser. What’s Katara to you?”

“The same!” Zuko says, as if this is obvious.

“And Sokka?”

“He’s—” Zuko breaks off. It’s wrong to say Sokka means the same thing to Zuko as Katara does. It’s a little startling to consider. Katara is _important_. She held him when he cried after Raya’s death. She spent months helping him keep his life together. She was with him when he’d faced Azula, saved him as much as he’d saved her. She was more of a sister to him than Azula in many ways, pushing him to be better, not tolerating any nonsense from him, but always his staunchest supporter.

Sokka is brilliant like the sun— 

Sokka is cold water on a hot day— 

Sokka is the wildflowers that bloom after early spring rains— 

Sokka is— 

Sokka is—

* * *

“Izumi,” Zuko calls, and his daughter comes trotting dutifully from where she’d been playing with some dolls, breaking her momentum by crashing into his legs. He staggers back a step, but bends down and picks her up into his arms.

She’s almost ten years old now, almost too big for him to be carrying like this. Certainly too old by traditional standards, but they’re alone in their rooms and Zuko doesn’t care much about tradition. 

“What’s going on, Daddy?” Izumi asks, glancing back at where her dolls lay abandoned on the floor.

“Nothing too important, baby,” he promises, pressing a kiss into her hair. “Uncle Sokka is coming to stay for a few weeks.”

“Oh, okay,” she says brightly. “I like Uncle Sokka! _He_ always wants to go swimming with me,” she continues, and her voice has a note of accusation in it. Today, for the third day in a row, Zuko had denied her request to go to the lake.

He chuckles a little. “We’ll all go tomorrow, okay?” he suggests.

Izumi lights up. “Promise?” she demands, pushing back a little to stare him in the face. 

He smiles. “Promise,” he says. But he doesn’t put Izumi down or send her back to play.

“What is it?” she asks, frowning at him.

“Baby, do you remember how you and me and Mommy all used to be a family together?”

“Yes,” Izumi says, a little quiet. She glances at Raya’s shrine, which they’ve kept ever since Suki set it up two years ago.

“Do you want a family like that again?”

“You mean, another mommy?” Izumi asks, face scrunching up with distaste.

“No,” Zuko says, smiling gently. “Not exactly.”

* * *

Sokka arrives late in the night, long after Izumi has gone to bed. Zuko greets him at the docks, alone and wearing plain clothing. Sokka waves over the side of the boat as soon as he catches sight, and Zuko waves back, his heart pounding.

“Didn’t expect you to still be up,” Sokka admits as he jumps the last few feet from the gangplank to the dock. 

“Wouldn’t miss it,” Zuko says, reaching a hand out unnecessarily to steady him from the jump. Sokka smiles and waves back at some of the people on the boat, who give him an all-clear signal. They know where to go and what to do.

Zuko swallows hard and turns to walk back toward the palace, Sokka at his side.

“Hey,” Sokka says after they’ve made it into the town. “You’re awfully quiet tonight.”

Zuko glances at him, then away again quickly. “Sokka, I— I’m afraid I’ve been an idiot,” he says.

“Duh,” Sokka teases.

Zuko glances at Sokka, and his courage evaporates. What if he’s wrong? What if Aang is wrong? He’s making a huge assumption based on… on nothing, on a friend supporting him during his mourning. 

“Nevermind,” he mutters. “Are you hungry?”

* * *

At the lake, Izumi keeps them busy for a few hours, demanding races, games, sandcastles, snacks, more races, volleyball, more snacks, and then an audience for some firebending tricks she’s working on. Once all of this dies down, she passes out on a towel and Zuko takes a moment to arrange some umbrellas to make sure she’s fully shaded and protected from the sun before collapsing next to Sokka on the beach chairs that someone had put out for them that morning.

“I think _I_ need a nap,” Sokka groans, limbs splayed and head lolling to the side.

“The great secret of parenthood: you always need their nap time more than they do,” Zuko chuckles, smiling over at the slumbering princess. 

There’s a long pause and Zuko thinks maybe Sokka actually fell asleep, but then he says, “Remember when we came here with Suki a few years ago?”

Zuko looks back over at his friend. “Yeah,” he says. “It was nice. Not long after Raya died.”

Sokka nods. “We floated out there in the middle of the lake for hours, I think,” he says, smiling at the memory. Zuko isn’t sure that it was actually hours, but the story is better that way. “You put your head on my shoulder,” Sokka continues, quieter.

Zuko blinks in surprise. “You remember that?”

“‘Course I do,” he scoffs. “All that hair floating around, sticking to my skin.” Zuko wilts a little but Sokka just looks over at him and laughs. “I’m teasing, jeez. You don’t have to look like a kicked puppy about it.”

“I just didn’t realize my hair bothered you,” Zuko bites back, aiming for playful and landing somewhere between sullen and harsh.

“It doesn’t,” Sokka says immediately, and he sits up a little, turning in his chair so his knees hang over the side and he’s facing Zuko. “I like it. I liked the way it felt, back then.”

“Oh,” Zuko says, not making eye contact.

“I thought, ‘this is it. This is what I needed. Now I can die happier.’”

They finally make eye contact. Zuko lets out a nervous laugh. “But you didn’t say anything,” he points out.

“How could I? Five months after Raya… how could I have said that to you, then?” Sokka shakes his head. “Even two years later, it feels weird. She was… she was my friend.”

Zuko thinks about his words carefully. “When Raya died, Aang was the first person I talked to about it. I told him that, to my shame, among all the normal feelings of grief and sadness, I felt glad I wasn’t married anymore.”

Sokka looks down at his hands, clasped in his lap.

“Raya was many things, but she was never the love of my life,” Zuko says bluntly. 

There’s another lapse into silence, and Zuko settles back into his chair, content to wait while Sokka thinks about everything he just said. After another moment, his patience is rewarded as Sokka shifts a bit, sitting up straight again.

“Do you remember what you asked me, just before we swam back to shore?” Sokka asks.

“Yes,” Zuko answers. He remembers everything about that day. “I asked, ‘what makes you happy?’ And you didn’t answer.”

“When Raya died, I felt glad, too,” Sokka whispers. “I felt glad you weren’t married to her anymore.”

Zuko sits up, turns to face Sokka. Their knees bump. He reaches a tentative finger out and hooks it into Sokka’s, butterflies dancing in his stomach so strongly he briefly worries he’ll throw up. But Sokka just tightens his fingers around Zuko’s, holds on tight.

“What makes you happy?” Zuko asks when their eyes finally meet, and he sees Sokka give in, sees him resign himself to this moment and the inevitable confession.

“You do,” Sokka says. Zuko can’t help the smile that spreads on his face, and as it does, Sokka laughs, throaty and quiet, and looks down at their linked fingers. “Like the sun coming out on a cloudy day.”

“Like ice water in the heat of summer,” Zuko whispers.

Like the wildflowers that bloom after the rains of spring.

**Author's Note:**

> I love all the 20-year-old Zukka stuff flooding everywhere right now, but I sure do crave some adult!gaang content. I'm a sucker for a good second chance.
> 
> Please leave a comment and/or kudos! They feed my soul. I love them! I love you! Hang in there.


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